Chip Barnett

Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago President Charles Evans says monetary policy will need to remain “accommodative for quite a while,” since inflation won’t hit a 2% average for “a long time.”

The new-issue calendar builds from almost nothing to $2.4 billion in the first week of the New Year, with deals ranging from education to taxables to social bonds on tap for investors.

Dominick D'Eramo, head of fixed income at Wilmington Trust Investment Advisors, talks with Chip Barnett about how the municipal bond market did in 2020 and what may be on tap for munis in the new year. (12 minutes)

Municipal bond funds saw $2.086 billion of inflows in the week ended Dec. 22, the Investment Company Institute reported Wednesday after a $2.517 billion inflow the week prior.

While there are no major sales on the calendar for this week, some larger deals from and Texas, California, New Jersey and Colorado issuers are on tap for the first few weeks of 2021.

The Bond Buyer takes a look back and remembers the men and women in the public finance industry who died this year.

Refinitiv Lipper reported tax-exempt mutual funds saw $1.288 billion of inflows in the week ended Dec. 23, the seventh week in a row investors put cash into the funds.

IHS Ipreo estimates the week's bond volume at $7.3 million in a calendar composed only of small negotiated deals.

The muni market headed into holiday hibernation on the last full trading day of the week.

Taxable munis have posted the highest returns among all fixed-income indexes this year, BofA said.

Munis were flat Monday as the entire curve was said to be undergoing a consolidation.

ICI reported another $2.3 billion of inflows, new deals continue the march to lower yields and benchmarks rose a basis point seven years and out for the first time since the beginning of December.

Bid list volume is trending higher into the end of the year, but its share as measured against overall high demand does not pose much of a threat, analysts say. Refinitiv Lipper reports $992 million of inflows.

The Bond Buyer chose the Ford Foundation’s $1 billion sale of taxable social bonds as the Deal of the Year winner in the Environmental, Social and Governance/Green financing category.

Michael Chalker, portfolio manager and senior analyst at LM Capital Group, talks with Chip Barnett about the fixed-income markets and the fallout from the COVID-19 pandemic. (16 minutes)

The Investment Company Institute reported municipal bond funds saw $2.675 billion of inflows in the latest reporting week.

Sources said the JFK deal was massively oversubscribed, allowing underwriters to lower yields from 15 to 45 basis points.

Municipals held firm ahead of this week's new issue slate, which features deals from issuers in New York and Texas. Treasuries weakened as stocks rose on positive coronavirus news.

Municipals continue to rally as market participants get ready to head into a quiet holiday week.

Large blocks of New Jersey paper changed hands with yields that pushed spreads below 100 basis points on some maturities for the recently downgraded state.